Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

After last weeks camping trip and having a remote solar panel grow legs and walk away ,I have been working on a couple of mounts for the top of the tear. I installed 2 runners made from red oak and epoxied them, 3/4"x1 1/2" oak strips were glued and screwed together to form a mount for solar panels and plans are to be able to tilt one side of panel for better sun capture without removing them from top. any ideas in this area would be much appreciated. jim <a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa143/zukamini/solarpanel6.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a><a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa143/zukamini/solarpanel3.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a><a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa143/zukamini/solarpanel4.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a><a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa143/zukamini/solarpanel5.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Looks like you have a plan for mounting going on already. This is emiller's (Eddie Miller) solar mount. It has a lock on top, and near the bottom, locking the pole from sliding off the bottom.

My mount is a fixed mount. It doesn't allow for movement to maximize exposure to the sun. I just used 4 hinges to attach it to the top. I'll try to get a better picture this evening.

Here in this picture I had to remove the screws from 2 of the hinges to let Chell work on the electrical.



Mike...

Mike,Zuka,... I also believe the solid mounting is the ticket,and you could easily fabricate an adjustable cover/Reflector for it..enhancing the suns effect...
MIT and Berkley are getting good results using low grade silicon Pv cells ,with reflectors... May get cheap one day ,once "they" decide to make enough of em'...

A solid mount would be ok , I was a little unsure about traveling with panels mounted on top. maybe the reflectors could be hinged so that they provide protection to panels when not in use.

Zuka,
I am sorry to hear that your panels took a walk. Since we are in a similar area and I am debating on the best methods for solar panels. What would you suggest would work best? Are you concerned over the effectiveness loss going to the fixed panel?

Okay, here's another picture of how I mounted it... of course, I am probably going to replace the brass with aluminum to get around the chemical reaction between the two dissimilar metals.



Mike...

My only experience with solar panels is watching the gentleman parked next to us one summer. His panel (about 3 x 3) was mounted on a wheeled tripod and he would spend the day chasing the sun around his site while his motor-home stayed parked under the trees. I think the fine examples of permanently mounted panels presented here make a lot more sense. Good work gentlemen!!

Like I said, I know very little about solar panels; but I think I may seriously consider adding one at some point. If somebody could point me in the direction of a thread or discussion (if one exists) that would help me learn more about them and what I may need to do while building to prepare for a later addition (framing, wiring, etc.), it would be greatly appreciated.

Since burning anything on this planet causes heat and greenhouse gasses, might as well take advantage of that hydrogen fire burning 93 million miles away ...We've used solar cells for many many years with good results...smaller projects , but proved the viability of sun power...
We're currently working on a solar charged electric bicycle ..to hang off the back of the TTT...

Thanks guys for the replies, I have installed the the panels permanently using stainless screws. I messed around a bit today using a small sheet of aluminum polished on one side with brasso , I did notice a increase in OCV when placed for best reflection. I am planning to mount (2) reflectors on each panel using small piano hinges so that they close up over panels during travel. I have routed the wiring thru the roof vent and over to controller mounted in closet door. this will work for now until I can somehow fish a couple of wires in the walls to the roof. JIM <a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa143/zukamini/solarpanelsinstalled1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a><a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa143/zukamini/solarpanelsinstalled2.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a><a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa143/zukamini/solarcontroler.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

I made a tilting rack out of aluminum for my panel. Tilting to follow the sun will increase your current output .






I used aluminum to span from side to side so I didn't have to put a screw into the middle of my roof. I have three angles for the different seasons: spring/fall, summer and winter. Here's where I found what angles to use, depending on your latitude.

http://www.macslab.com/optsolar.html



Bruce

I'm not sure how efficient the reflectors would be, but I do like the idea of them folding down to become a travel cover. Makes a lot of sense..

I do know that a lot of heat solar panels use parabolic reflectors to focus the sun onto a tube running down the middle.. but that is heat, not sure if it would work for electric panels.

I can picture flat reflectors, kinda like mirrors, to reflect more light on the entire surface of the solar panel, especially off season when the sun's rays are not as strong.

The enemy of solar panels is heat so I'm not sure I would want to concentrate too much sunlight on the panel using reflectors. Efficiency drops with higher temperature so I think that's why you never see concentrators on commercial type PV arrays. I think you get more bang for your buck just tilting the panel.
Bruce

BDO, It is in our humble opinion that your tilting mounting method makes the most Sense of all !!!
Most PV panels are usually aimed at the prevailing Sun anyway, so no need for reflectors.. But when it's not practical to have full available sunlight, such as on a Concealed horizontal mounting, A simple reflector/ cover would be a viable alternative, and used "with care" should cause no problems to the PV...The original post was about poor Zuka having his panels nicked'...
Just trying to solve one problem usually creates another...

PS , I like the idea of a cover too to prevent it working when we don't need it ...and possibly protecting from the incidental dead limb or hail damage ...